A British composer's ambitious quest to premier a requiem in the highly atmospheric Abney Park cemetery by lantern light.

Friday, 18 October 2013

Prep and sweat

Today's been a rather bitty day. One of those days when a blog entry seems almost fraudulent on account of there being so little to write about. I wrote in the cafe all morning, slowly wending my way towards the interval of Brass, making myself so upset at one point I had to stop writing for a while and stare at the yummy mummies on the street outside.

I came home for lunch, frittered away a couple of hours doing admin and chatting on the phone to Fiona, before running into Muswell Hill to pick up some photographs. Combining an errand and a fitness mission seemed like a good idea when I set off, but by the time I'd reached Snappy Snaps, I was sweating so profusely that I was unable to check the photographs they'd printed. I returned home to find quite a number of them with curious marks and scuffs, so was angry with myself for trying to kill two birds with one stone.

I had a bath and did another three hours' prep on the Roy Harper gig. The first rehearsal is tomorrow, and today's task was reminding myself of the music I'd conducted in the last concert I did with him, almost exactly two years ago, when I had whooping cough!

Despite being catastrophically poorly, I have such fond memories of the trip Fiona and I made to Ireland to visit Roy for the first time. It really was rather magical. We kissed the Blarney Stone, visited ruined houses and standing stones and heard ghost stories in an ancient folk club, all the time buffeted by heavy winds and Biblical rain showers!

That's all I have to say. Nathan's back from work and I'm determined to eat and watch a bit a telly without anything like a blog entry hanging over my head!

About Me

Composer and television director. Recent works include: A Symphony for Yorkshire (winner of 3 RTS Awards and a Prix de Circom), Tyne and Wear Metro: The Musical (winner of a Gillard award), The Pepys Motet, The London Requiem, Songs from Hattersley, A1: The Road Musical (nominated for a Grierson Award), Watford Gap: The Musical, Coventry Market: The Musical (nominated for a SONY award and recipient of two Gillard awards) and Oranges and Lemons, which features every bell in every London church mentioned in the nursery rhyme.